CORE C: ENDOCRINOLOGY AND METABOLISM CORE ABSTRACT (CORE C) The main mission of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Core is to provide phenotyping services for the assessment of endocrine function and metabolic pathways in mouse models of obesity, diabetes, and related diseases. A major objective of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Core is to provide the expertise, technical resources, and instrumentation necessary to characterize perturbations in endocrine systems and metabolism in murine models useful for understanding obesity, diabetes, its complications, and related metabolic disorders, including NAFLD. The Core will conduct in vitro metabolic procedures (e.g., insulin secretion and adipocyte metabolism) and perform assays and data interpretation for in vivo metabolic function tests performed by the Animal Care Core, including IV, IP and oral glucose tolerance tests and insulin tolerance tests for insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion and glucose disposal. In addition, the Core will offer an extensive list of quality controlled assays of metabolic substrates, endocrine hormones, and indices of renal function, assessments of insulin signaling pathways, inflammation and endoplasmic reticulum stress in metabolically important tissues such as liver, muscle, adipose, pancreas, as well as state-of-the-art metabolomic analysis and interpretation. Metabolomic assays including complex lipids, phospholipids, bile acids, and biogenic amines. The Core will also cooperate and coordinate with other Centers in the MMPC Consortium, such as the Bariatric Surgery Working Group. In addition, the Core will develop and refine new technologies that can be applied to the study of endocrine function and metabolism in mouse models of obesity and diabetes. For the upcoming project period, these include continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and the miniaturization of metabolomic analyses for the small samples from mice. The team, made up of Drs'. Havel, Haj, Fiehn and Huising, includes interdisciplinary expertise in the physiology and pathophysiology of obesity and diabetes, animal models of metabolic diseases, nutrition, biochemistry and molecular biology, immunohistochemistry and imaging, and in performing and interpreting advanced targeted metabolomics and lipidomic analyses. This team, along with James Graham, Staff Research Associate in Dr. Havel's laboratory with over 15 years of experience managing animal studies and assay services, will ensure smooth functioning of the Core, its interactions with other Cores in our Center and with the MMPC Consortium, Thus, the Endocrinology and Metabolism Core will provide valuable services to the users of the MMPC-UCD as well as advancing research and providing new tools for characterizing endocrine and metabolic pathways in mouse models of diabetes and obesity and related metabolic diseases.
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